Ethiopia Mission Trip – Salle & Gosnell

Trip Dates:

December 26, 2020 - January 3, 2021

Estimated Cost: $3,100 - 3,400
Team Leader: Melinda Salle & Ashley Gosnell

About the Leaders:

Melinda
My name is Melinda Sallé and I live in Greenville, South Carolina. I have been married to my best friend for 20 years. I am the mother of five children, three boys, and two girls. My youngest son is adopted from China. Orphan care has become a top priority for me since I went on an America World Mission Trip in October of 2014. I very reluctantly went on that trip and God changed my life, my perspective, and my purpose through what I experienced there. Now I am passionate about helping others experience God through caring for vulnerable children. I have seen Him do the impossible time and time again through orphan care all over the world.

Since going to China in 2014, I have traveled back there on an adoption trip in 2015 and was privileged to be part of another America World Trip to China working with older orphans in October of 2016. God opened the doors for me to travel to Ethiopia in 2017 and I fell in love with the country of Ethiopia and the people and children I met there. I have been able to go back yearly and it feels like a second home to me now! Join me this year! I promise your life will be changed in the best possible way.

Ashley
My name is Ashley Gosnell, and I have been married to my husband Tollie for twenty-four years.  We have six children, four biological boys and a son and daughter adopted from China. My first experience in international missions was in China in the summers of 1999-2002, teaching English to Chinese high school students.  During one of these trips, I had the privilege of meeting a beautiful little girl named Anne, who was an orphan.  God planted the seed of adoption in my heart at that time.  Ten years later, we felt God telling us that it was time to begin the adoption process.  In May 2013, my husband and I traveled to China to bring our son and daughter home.

God has given me the great privilege of continuing to serve orphans in China and Ethiopia through America World Missions. These trips have been absolutely life-changing for me. It is my joy and passion to know, love and advocate for these precious children, and I am so thankful for the privilege to serve in Ethiopia again this year.

Ethiopia:

With a population of over 91 million people, there is an assorted collection of food, languages, customs and people groups. Ethiopia also contains a diverse landscape, including parts of the Nile River and the Great Rift Valley. As an East African landlocked country, Ethiopia is bordered by Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, Eritrea, and Djibouti.

Ethiopia, an ancient Christian nation, has deep-rooted Ethiopian Orthodox customs and practices. The Judaic-Christian roots of Ethiopia can be found in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. Today, about half the population of Ethiopia is Christian.

Ethiopia is a country that is about twice the size of Texas and has an estimated 4.3 million orphans. The children are primarily orphaned due to poverty, and live in both government-run and privately established orphanages. The need is great in Ethiopia.

America World partners with many orphanages in Ethiopia. It is at these orphanages that our One Orphan teams visit and work to help provide education, resources, and support for the on-going care provided by the orphanage staff.


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* This is a general estimate of the overall trip cost per person. The costs are all-inclusive and intended to cover all traveling expenses, including international airfare. Our missions staff work diligently to keep the trip costs as low as possible.